


Kiss the cook

by spacemanearthgirl



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, Lena is very much in love with Kara, SuperCorp, their dinners are basically dates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-04 14:29:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20472578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacemanearthgirl/pseuds/spacemanearthgirl
Summary: Kara invites Lena over for dinner but it turns out Kara's a terrible cook. Instead of just telling Kara her cooking is awful, Lena eats the horrible food just to see Kara smile.Or for a month Lena eats some pretty disgusting food just to make Kara happy. It goes well until Alex is invited to dinner too.





	Kiss the cook

_ Kiss the cook_.

Lena certainly wouldn’t be opposed to doing just that as she watches Kara flutter around her kitchen, looking radiant even with a smear of flour on her face and her hair pulled into a messy bun.

_ Kiss the cook. _

Lena has thought about it before, of course she has. She’s wondered if Kara’s lips are as soft as they look, wondered if she’d be able to taste the strawberry chapstick she’s seen Kara use, wondered about the warmth of her best friends mouth moving against her own.

She’s thought about kissing Kara a lot more than is appropriate for two people who are just friends.

_ Kiss the cook _, the words emblazoned big and red across Kara’s apron, a joke present she knows Winn gave to her. It’s cute but also completely distracting.

Kara grins when she looks up and finds Lena watching her and Lena blushes, even as something warm and unbidden spreads through her. Usually, she’d push that feeling right back down, but not tonight. Tonight, Lena is feeling stupidly happy that Kara’s invited her over for dinner, for a home cooked meal, _ just the two of them _, and Lena is going to enjoy tonight and the comfort that Kara always bring her.

Lena smiles back because she can’t help it, Kara’s smile infectious. Kara just has this thing about her, you can’t help feeling better in her presence, you can’t help smiling when Kara smiles too. One look from Kara, and Lena feels invincible.

Lena thinks it might be another superpower of hers.

“What?” Kara asks and Lena realises she’s probably been staring too long.

“Nothing,” Lena says far too quickly but Kara seems to buy it. “Do you need any help?”

Just as Lena speaks, the oven dings.

“Nope, it’s ready.” Kara’s grinning again and Lena has to look away for a moment to compose herself so she doesn’t just act on the words across Kara’s front and potentially ruin their friendship.

Kara takes the dish out of the oven with her bare hands and while of course Lena knows who she is, the casual use of her powers still throws her sometimes. She likes that Kara can just be herself in front of her, Kara is probably the only person that Lena can fully be herself around too.

“That smells delicious,” Lena says as she follows Kara to the table. She’d been skeptical when Kara had said she was going cook dinner for her, the last time she’d seen her cook anything, Kara burnt it, but it looks like her fears were unfounded.

Kara looks proud and it’s kind of adorable. She’s clearly put a lot of work into the evening and Lena is flattered that she’s put in all this effort for her.

Kara puts the dish of macaroni and cheese she’s made on the table and they both sit across from each other. Sitting at the table is something new too, usually they just eat takeout on the couch but Kara’s set the table nicely, with cutlery, wine glasses and even a flower in the middle.

“Thank you for all this,” Lena says as she spoons some of the food onto her plate. She’s glad Kara has made heaps because even though it’s not the healthiest of meals and she shouldn’t eat too much, she’s hungry and it smells delicious and she already plans to have seconds.

Kara waves her off. “It was nothing,” she says as she spoons her own food onto her plate, four times the amount that Lena has. “Shoot, I forgot the drinks.”

Kara excuses herself and ducks back into the kitchen. Lena considers waiting for her to get back to start but she knows if she doesn’t eat quickly, there may be none left over to have more.

The moment the food hits Lena’s tongue, she knows something is incredibly wrong. She’s about to spit it back out when Kara returns and that would be an incredibly rude thing to do when Kara has gone to some much effort this evening.

It’s all the years of boardroom practice that has Lena’s features remaining neutral as she chews and swallows the mouthful. As soon as Kara fills up her wine glass, she takes a sip to chase away the flavour.

Lena takes her time picking her knife and fork back up, just waiting for Kara to take her own mouthful so she’ll see it tastes bad and then Lena herself won’t have to say anything. Kara shovels a huge forkful into her mouth and Lena waits for Kara to gag or pull a face or spit out her food but it never comes as she swallows the mouthful like nothing is wrong.

“So, what do you think?” Kara asks, expectant and hopeful and not looking like she’s just taken a bite of something that tastes like what Lena would compare to car tires. How does something that smells so good, taste so bad?

Lena almost says it, is almost truthful about that fact that she’s pretty sure this is the worst thing that she’s ever tasted. But then Kara is there, eyes wide and waiting as she watches Lena and Lena thinks about how much effort Kara has gone to, how much Kara has done just for her and before Lena can stop herself, lies are coming out of her mouth. “It’s delicious,” Lena smiles. She feels bad instantly, and it’s not from the food.

But then Kara is absolutely beaming and Lena feels herself falling that little bit more in love as Kara looks so damn proud and happy.

The lying is bad enough but as she watches Kara dig back into her food, Lena realises she’s going to have to do the same. She’s going to have to finish this meal like nothing is wrong.

She manages to, barely, only because she covers her meal in so much salt to mask some of the taste and drinks more wine that she should’ve. But she does it and the ice cream for dessert helps. Lena thanks any God out there that Kara didn’t decide to make the dessert herself too.

Kara pulls her into a hug before she leaves, and Lena lingers in the hold. It’s sort of pathetic really, how much Lena is in love with her best friend and how she’d do anything for her, including eating an entire meal that could very likely make her sick. But right now she doesn’t care about that, all she cares about is the warm press of Kara’s body against hers and how Kara holds her back just as tight.

“We should do this again sometime,” Kara says as she pulls away, a smile on her face that Lena can’t say no to.

“I can’t wait.”

What has Lena gotten herself in to?

\---

Lena watches as Kara mixes ingredients and puts food in the oven, trying to figure out exactly where she’s going wrong with her cooking. It’s not the food itself, none of it has expired, and what Kara puts into the meals all looks normal, yet somehow it still tastes awful and Lena has no idea why. Four weeks and more than four almost inedible meals and Lena wonders how she got herself in so deep. She’s surprised she hasn’t gotten sick yet to be honest. She’s even started taking cooking classes herself so she can learn to cook and either help Kara or take over the cooking altogether.

The only reason she still says yes every time Kara asks her to dinner is because she gets to spend the whole evening with Kara, and it looks like she’d do just about anything to do that. But she’s starting to get desperate, wonders just how many more horrible meals she can eat before she cracks.

“Can you set another place at the table?” Kara asks. “Alex called while you were in the bathroom before and I invited her to join us. I hope that’s okay, I just heard her arrive.”

“Of course,” Lena says as she stands and grabs extra cutlery, a plate and a glass out for Alex. She’s just putting the items down on the table when she realises exactly what this means. Alex is coming for dinner, Alex is going to have to _ eat _ Kara’s dinner, which means that Alex will be honest about how bad the food tastes and Lena’s secret will be out. On the plus side, at least Lena may not have to eat tonight’s meal. But she’s rather eat the meal than admit she’s been too scared to tell Kara that she’s been eating some really disgusting food just to make Kara smile.

There’s a knock at the door and it’s too late for Lena to form a strategy on how to properly handle this evening because Kara is opening the door and inviting Alex in.

Alex laughs at Kara’s apron and plants a kiss on her cheek and Lena suddenly wishes she could do the same.

“Hey,” Alex says, greeting Lena with a warm smile.

Lena can’t help but return it, Alex’s smile almost as infectious as Kara’s. Alex’s smiles are much more rare than Kara’s but they’re always filled with the same warmth.

Lena thinks about taking Alex aside and just telling her the truth about Kara’s food, about what she’s been doing, in the hopes she could play along so Kara doesn’t find out. But that also involves admitting the truth to Alex which doesn’t sound pleasant either. Maybe she should just feign illness and escape for the evening. Alex would still be subjected to Kara’s cooking and Kara would find out that she’s been lying to her this whole time about how good her food is but at least she wouldn’t be around to see it. 

“You okay there?” Alex asks, Lena warming slightly with both embarrassment and the fact that Alex seems to know her well enough that she’s acting odd. Not as well as Kara but well enough to consider her a good friend.

Lena nods. “I’m fine.”

They turn back to Kara just as she’s taking the lasagne she’s made out of the oven and Alex blanches. “Wait, you’re cooking dinner? I thought we were getting takeout.”

“Nope, I made dinner,” Kara grins, lasagne dish in her hands.

“I can see that,” Alex says. “But I know for a fact that you can’t cook.”

“I’ve been practicing!” Kara says. “Tell her, Lena, my cooking is really good, I’ve been cooking her dinners for the past month.”

Kara looks at her expectantly and Lena’s been lying for weeks so she may as well keep it up for another ten minutes before her lies unravel and she’s forced to tell the truth because despite how good the lasagne looks, Lena knows that both her and Alex are going to hate it. She should’ve just told Kara the truth from the beginning and not let it get this far, she’d been hurt when she found out Kara had been lying to her for months and now here she is, lying to Kara herself, knowing it’s going to hurt her when the truth comes out.

Lena reluctantly answers. “It’s good.”

“It _ does _ smell good,” Alex admits but she still looks skeptical.

“See, I told you. Now, come on, let’s eat, I’m starving.”

Both Alex and Lena laugh. “You always are,” Alex teases.

They dish up their plates and Lena decides to not even touch hers, no point in eating it when any minute, Alex is going to take a bite and realise it’s almost inedible. Instead, Lena takes a big sip of her wine, knows she’s going to need it.

Lena looks over to see Kara watching Alex expectantly and suddenly she can’t do it, suddenly she needs to tell Kara the truth.

“Kara, I-“ Lena starts

“Oh my God,” Alex splutters, cutting Lena off as she spits her food back onto her plate before she takes her glass of wine and downs the thing in one go.

Kara looks worried. “Is it bad?”

Alex pulls a face, Lena knows first hand that the taste is hard to get out of your mouth. “It’s not _ good _.”

Kara takes her own bite, chews it thoughtfully and swallows. “It tastes fine to me.”

Lena shakes her head. “Alex is right, it’s not very good.” Even as she says the words she wants to take them back because Kara looks incredibly sad but she can’t, she can’t go on eating Kara’s bad food and she can’t continue lying to her.

Kara frowns, looking between Lena and her plate. “You haven’t even tried it.”

“I- Lena starts, realising that she could’ve gotten out of this all, if she’d just eaten the food and reacted the same way as Alex, she could’ve pretended all the other meals were good but just this one is bad. Maybe she can still salvage this. Or she could’ve if Alex didn’t interrupt again.

“Oh my God,” Alex repeats. “Lena, please don’t tell me you’ve been pretending to like my sister’s cooking for the past month just because you were too scared to tell her the truth. This is disgusting, how could you eat it?”

“I-“ Lena starts, cutting herself off this time as she looks between the sisters, unsure exactly what to say, Alex looking wide eyed but knowing and Kara looking so hurt and sad that Lena’s own heart hurts. This is all her fault. Alex is only mostly right though, and she wants Kara to know the whole truth. “You looked so proud after every meal,” Lena says, embarrassed that Alex is here to witness this but she has to tell Kara. “I could tell how much effort you put in and how excited you were for me to try your food so I ate it even though it didn’t taste very nice.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me the truth?” Kara asks.

A phone ringing breaks Lena’s attention away from Kara and Lena remembers they’re not alone. How could she forget Alex so quickly?

“It’s Maggie,” Alex says, looking both apologetic and relieved all at once. “I better take this and why don’t I go and get us some pizzas while you two talk?” She doesn’t wait for a response before she answers her phone but she does smile at them both as she leaves.

“Hey, babe,” Lena hears as Alex heads towards the door, a soft tone to her voice that Lena only hears when Maggie is involved. Lena has always been envious of Alex and Maggie’s relationship, envious of the clear love between them.

She wants that with someone.

She wants that with _ Kara _.

Lena waits until the door has clicked shut to answer. She decides to be as honest as possible, after all the lies of the past month. “Because you looked so happy every time I said your food tasted good and I like to see you smile.”

Some of the sadness slips away as Kara smiles. “I can’t even be mad at you with an answer like that.” Kara reaches across the table, lays her hand over Lena’s. “You should’ve just told me the truth, I hate to think that you were forcing yourself to eat my food if it’s as bad as Alex made it out to be.”

Lena winces. “It was pretty bad.” The dressing Kara had made for a salad that Lena had requested had been the worst.

“Then why didn’t you say anything?”

“It was worth it,” Lena simply says. “To spend the evening with you.” And it was. Despite the truly awful food she’s eaten, Kara’s smile, Kara’s presence, made it all worth it.

“How about next time, we get takeout then? I think I’ve tortured you enough.”

“Or maybe next time we could cook together? I’ve been taking cooking classes.”

“Have you been taking cooking classes because I’m such a bad cook?”

“Yes.” Lena says. Kara retracts her hand and buries her face in her own two. “And you’re not a bad cook,” Lena quickly amends. “I was taking classes so I could help you, so we could cook together. You could join me, if you want?”

Kara face peeks out behind her hands. How does a grown woman look so adorable? “Really?”

“Yeah,” Lena smiles. “We could learn to cook together.”

Kara’s smiling again now too. “Sounds perfect.”

Lena’s hit with a sudden intense desire to just lean across the table to kiss Kara, her smile too soft and her eyes too blue. She forces herself to look away, needs a moment to push her feelings down as they rise too close to the surface. “Come on, why don’t we clean this up before Alex gets back,” she says. “Or you can eat it, you seemed to like the other meals too.”

Kara takes the lasagne and puts in the fridge. “I’m really am sorry for forcing you to eat things you didn’t like.”

She looks sad again and Lena feels guilty.

“I’m sorry I lied to you all this time, I should’ve just been honest with you. We said no more lies and then I lie to you again for a month.”

“You were just trying to protect my feelings.”

“That doesn’t make it any better,” Lena says. “I didn’t want to hurt you but I ended up doing just that.”

Kara reaches out and takes Lena’s hand. Lena loves the way their hands slot together, Kara’s hand fitting perfectly in her own. “From now on, no more lies, no matter what, deal?”

The word “deal” is on the tip of Lena’s tongue expect what comes out instead is something else entirely, the other secret that Lena has been keeping, but one she’d planned to keep forever.

“I’m in love with you.”

Kara’s eyes go wide and Lena knows her face must mirror Kara’s. Except then a smile spreads across Kara’s face while Lena’s is still stuck in a state of shock, unable to process the words that have just come out of her mouth even though she’s the one who said them.

“I guess if we’re saying no more lies, then I’m in love with you too.”

“You are?” is all Lena can manage to say. Her brain has stopped working.

“Why do you think I invited you over and cooked for you? I was trying to be romantic and hoped you’d notice. I guess it would’ve worked out better if I could actually cook,” Kara jokes.

Lena laughs, she’s pretty sure she’s working on autopilot at this point. “I’m pretty sure you could’ve kissed me and I’d still have thought you were just being friendly.”

“Can I?”

Lena freezes.

“Kiss you, I mean,” Kara continues.

Lena really can’t believe this is all happening. “You love me?” she asks, just to clarify and Kara nods, a smile on her face. “And you want to kiss me?”

“Very much.”

Lena feels herself relax under Kara’s gaze. Underneath all of this, Kara is her best friend and even though she’s sort of terrified right now because she never thought that there was even a _ remote _ possibility that Kara liked her back, she’s still Kara.

Kara, who’s looking at her with such soft affection that she wonders how she didn’t see this before.

Lena smiles. “I want to kiss you too.”

A warm had cups her cheek as Kara steps closer and Lena feels herself relaxing even more into this new knowledge that her feelings are returned, that Kara is standing in front of her and wants her too.

Lena glances down and sees that Kara is still wearing that stupidly cute apron that has actually haunted her dreams with how much she’s wanted to act on it. She laughs. “Kiss the cook? I think I can do that.”

Kara grins, her eyes bright as she leans forward. Lena tilts her head and meets Kara halfway, breath catching when warm lips brush against her own. She feels Kara sigh into her mouth and Lena sinks into the feeling as a second hand cups her cheek. Thankfully, all she can taste is the wine in Kara’s mouth as she gets lost in the feeling.

“Oh my God.”

Lena’s not sure how long they’ve been kissing when a voice across the room startles them apart.

“Sorry,” Alex says, looking apologetic and also a little grossed out at what she’s interrupted when Lena turns to find her at the door. “I can go?”

“Stay,” Lena says before Kara can. She looks back to Kara.

“Stay,” Kara confirms as she slips her hand back into Lena’s, turning to Alex. “Please.”

“Are you just saying that because I have pizza?” Alex jokes.

“Maybe,” Kara grins but they can all tell she’s joking too.

“Are we going to talk about…?” Alex trails off, waving her hand between the two of them.

Kara looks questioningly at Lena and Lena nods, there’s no point in hiding this, Alex already knows.

“No,” Kara shakes her head with a smile, surprising Lena. “We’re going to have dinner together and maybe watch a movie then later tonight, once you’ve gone home, I’m going to call you and tell you all about how Lena and I kissed and how she’s in love with me too.”

Alex’s eyes widen before she schools her features and smiles. “I’m happy for you,” she says. “I’m happy for you both.” She clearly looks at Lena too as she talks.

Lena’s not sure her cheeks have ever been this red but she smiles at Alex and the clear acceptance Alex has for her and her relationship with Kara.

“We should eat this before it gets cold,” Alex says, dumping the pile of boxes in the vacated space the lasagne dish left behind on the table. “And no kissing when I’m around,” she adds, pointing between the two of them again. ‘”I’ve seen enough already.”

Lena laughs, feeling light and so incredibly happy.

“We can continue this once Alex has gone?” Kara says, quietly enough so Alex won’t hear as she’s already busy with the pizza.

Lena bites her lip and she’s thrilled when she sees Kara’s eyes drop. “I can’t wait.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Tumblr: spaceman-earthgirl


End file.
